they are part of boehner's strategy team? in the meantime, the white house is hitting back at boehner and the gop tactics. >> a question of whether or not we have specific spending cuts, the answer is we have. i understand they may not agree with all of it. but it exists. >> i'm joined by illinois congresswoman january schakowsky joining us tonight. congresswoman, good to have you with us. >> thanks, ed. >> harry reid now says it's going to be awful hard to reach a deal by christmas. where is this all heading, in your opinion? >> the republicans are in total disarray. i think john boehner went to the floor today to encourage his -- or to placate his tea party people saying the real answer is in more cuts and the president has to be clear about the cuts, which as you said, and pointed out, that we have been very explicit about that. i think it's going to be very hard for us at the end of the day and the end of the day is december 31, to come up with a final deal. and i think it only gets worse for the republicans. look, they w